Late game strategic resources

saamohod · Aug 4, 2014

I've just been browsing through the information era units and noticed that none of them uses Oil, just Aluminum or Uranium. Mechanized Infantry and Missile Cruiser don't require any resource at all. Does it mean that Oil is useless in late game? Not to mention Iron, which gets outdated after middle game.
I'm new to Civ 5, but have been playing Civ 4 for years. In Civ 4 you can utilize any resource via Corporations, therefore none of the strategic resources loses its value throughout the game.
Is there any use of outdated strategic resources in Civ 5?

Acken · Aug 4, 2014

Horses and Iron get obsolete after modern era yes. Oil is also useless in the very late game.

You can still sell them though.

joncnunn · Aug 4, 2014

On Oil it's still needed in Information age:

1. Stealth is on the last row of techs and in fact the game is often over before researching it because you've already won.

2. When not going for conquest victory, the tech allowing modern armor is low priority as well.

3. Battleships don't upgrade to anything and so still need Oil

Coal's main use is Factories. It's only for a limited time that you also use it for units.

Iron's first use is the main foot solider line. It's no longer needed for that line about the same time you need it for Frigates. Yes, after the last Frigate is upgraded to a Battleship you'll no longer need Iron, but can continue to sell to the AI until they get past a certain point.

Horses become no longer needed as soon as the Calvary are upgraded to Landships and the Lancers to Anti Tank. After that you can sell to the AI until they get past a certain point.

amphreded · Aug 4, 2014

I really wish the developers make strategic resources a bit more deep. For example, coal should be required in factory all the time in order for the building to function. As of now, you can buy coals from another Civ, build factories, then when the deal is over, you are at minus coals but there isn't a penalty like how military units receive.

I think it would be nice these buildings have slots for strategic resources. Coal for factory, aluminum for hydro plant, uranium for nuclear plant.

It would be nice if resources can be used other ways:

1) Zoo and Circus have slots for horses. When you slot in a horse, you get +1 extra happiness.

2) Once you've connected cities with railroads, you can slot in coal to power your caravans (become steamer trains) that give you better gold / food / hammers.

3) Stable with horse slot that gives more production

4) Forge with iron slot that gives more production

5) Oil riggers require iron

6) Seaport with coal slot to improve production and gold

Etc.

Also certain units should require higher number of resources. For example, swordsman requires 1 iron while frigate requires 3.

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Bingles · Aug 4, 2014

amphreded said:
I really wish the developers make strategic resources a bit more deep. For example, coal should be required in factory all the time in order for the building to function. As of now, you can buy coals from another Civ, build factories, then when the deal is over, you are at minus coals but there isn't a penalty like how military units receive.

I think it would be nice these buildings have slots for strategic resources. Coal for factory, aluminum for hydro plant, uranium for nuclear plant.

It would be nice if resources can be used other ways:

1) Zoo and Circus have slots for horses. When you slot in a horse, you get +1 extra happiness.

2) Once you've connected cities with railroads, you can slot in coal to power your caravans (become steamer trains) that give you better gold / food / hammers.

3) Stable with horse slot that gives more production

4) Forge with iron slot that gives more production

5) Oil riggers require iron

6) Seaport with coal slot to improve production and gold

Etc.

Also certain units should require higher number of resources. For example, swordsman requires 1 iron while frigate requires 3.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Many of these issues have been addressed by mods. theCrazyScotsman has a Mod that adds buildings to the late game that use outdated resources (Horses for race tracks, iron for steel mills, etc..)

UncivilizaedGuy has a mod that adds an eye popping number of resources and requires almost everything in game to use them with this Mod.

Ishipp has upped the resource requirements for many units and added dual resource requirements (I.E. Horses AND Iron for knights, Oil AND Iron for tanks) in this Mod.

One cautionary note: I play with severely increased resource requirements for units and have found the AI is terrible at acquiring enough to create the massive doom carpets to invade you with. So if you ever want to have a good fight, check out this Mod. Created by Kel, it adds buildings that generate resources.

Your idea of resource slots on certain buildings is new to me, I like it. It sounds clever.

kaspergm · Aug 4, 2014

The idea of resource slots in buildings was actually promoted a long time ago in the context of Corporations (for instance modern production building where you could fill various "raw" luxuries like Silk, Cotton, Dyes, etc. into slots and then get "advanced" luxuries out to trade).

I always felt the Factory working only with Coal is a bit non-sensical. Why can't we fuel our Factories with Oil instead? This would also be solvable with a resource slot in factory, consuming either Coal or Oil or even Uranium.

Or one could get around this issue in another way, namely making the Factory require a power source in city, which could then either be Coal Plant (consumes 1 Coal), Oil Plant (consumes 1 Oil), Water Plant (consumes 1 Aluminum) or Nuclear Plant (consumes 1 Uranium) - but of course that would not solve the issue where you can just "borrow" the resource for the building.

Edit > here was one of those threads discussing Corporations, if anybody should be interested.

reddishrecue · Aug 4, 2014

Iron and horses aren't really used by late era units. Iron and horses are used more often in the eariler eras. The strategic resources found in the later era are used in the later era. A good example of a strategic resource that isn't available early or later is coal because it is only available in the mid eras and can still be used in the later eras in the factories.

Trackmaster · Aug 5, 2014

I hadn't really thought about oil being a strategic resource that is phased out, but I guess that is true to a certain extent (but at that point, the game will have to be over very, very quickly). So the resources really are useful only in a window of time, and not indefinitely. It kind of goes from horses and iron to oil and coal to uranium and aluminum.

Previously I was thinking that a nice feature would have been to have horses switch over from a strategic resource to a luxury resource once a civilization reaches the modern age and discharges all of their mounted units. In real life, we have no uses for horses for transportation or production, but rich people still keep them as pets and enjoy horseback riding.

However, that might not work with the idea of the resource progression. And, horses are so abundant that it would really be more of a freebie than anything.

Late game strategic resources

saamohod

Deity

Acken

Deity

joncnunn

Senior Java Wizard

amphreded

Chieftain

Bingles

Chieftain

kaspergm

Deity

reddishrecue

Some dude on civfans

Trackmaster

Warlord

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